The term flow assurance is used to describe a broad array of issues related to the reliability and operability of oil and gas production systems. The flow assurance workflow consists of two streams, a design stream and a surveillance stream. The design stream starts in the exploration and appraisal phase and ends with the commissioning of the system. The surveillance stream starts with first production and continues through the producing life of the field. The surveillance stream is a feedback loop used to monitor and optimize the production system performance.
Fluid samples from hydrocarbon reservoirs are essential to understand the fluids to be produced. Many decisions for field development, such as production strategies and design of fluid handling facilities are based on the fluid properties of samples from exploratory wells. It is important to have information of the original fluids in the reservoir. Fluid samples are also acquired at later stages in the life of the reservoir to evaluate the conditions of the fluids at a certain point of time or after some production activities, however, the point of comparison is always the original fluid properties. Thus, it is important to acquire quality, representative fluid samples and to manage this data.